iLounge

Company: Pacific Rim Marketing

Website: www.iDiddy.com

Model: iDiddy/iDitti Commuter

Price: $60

Compatible: iPod nano, iPod 5G

Pacific Rim Marketing iDitti/iDiddy Commuter for iPod nano and 5G

By Jeremy Horwitz

Editor-in-Chief, iLounge
Published: Friday, April 14, 2006
Category: Cases - iPod 5G (with Video), Cases - iPod nano

Though they look a lot like retrofitted pocketbooks, it would be unfair to summarily dismiss Pacific Rim Marketing's iDitti Commuter (formerly iDiddy Commuter) cases for iPod nano and 5G ($60 each) that simply; these travel case-slash-wallets come in your choice of brown suede or calfskin leather in black or white, and are designed to hold one iPod, a wrapped up pair of headphones and/or charging cable, an ID card in a transparent pocket, three credit cards, and perhaps a few folded-up bills. You pick a case size specific to your iPod model: nano, 30GB, and 60GB versions are sold separately. One Opticover - good clear film for the front and back of your iPod - is included with each Commuter case, along with a nice tool to help you remove air bubbles during installation.

Having seen a number of other wallet-style cases for the 5G iPod and nano, this one strikes us as entirely functional, but comparatively inefficient. Your headphones and charging cable - worth under $40, together - are given their own zippered compartment, with two nice metal cord winding nubs, a snap-closed cord holder, and elastic to keep the buds separate. This is all great, but by comparison, more expensive iPods - nano or full-sized, but particularly the full-sized ones - are left partially exposed even when the case is closed: their sides, bottom corners, and top are uncovered at all times, rendering the case less protective than one would imagine given all of the leather here.

As a wallet, Commuter also only does an okay job. Its oversized ID card flap isn’t the tightest-fitting we’ve ever seen, and the one pocket suitable for holding cash is similarly left unsecured at its open edge. Like some other iPod wallets, with the notable exception of Marware’s Billfold Wallet (iLounge rating: B+), it would be hard for many people to use this case in place of a real wallet, particularly those who need to carry more than 3 credit cards or real money around without double-stuffing the zippered headphone pocket. In our view, this is mostly remarkable given the case’s large size, which one would assume would be capable of serving both of its purposes more amply.

All in all, iDitti Commuter is a decent case that will appeal to people more because of how nice its leather looks from the outside than how it manages or protects the most important things it carries inside. Given its higher-than-average price and so-so functionality, it’s not a case we’d recommend, but if it really calls out to you, we wouldn’t dissuade you from giving it a look, either.